Raasch: Sebelius Is Gone, but the Health-Care Fight Endures

Raasch: Sebelius Is Gone, but the Health-Care Fight Endures

Article excerpt

WASHINGTON * Now that Kathleen Sebelius has left her stormy post
as the head of Health and Human Services, what will happen to the
sweeping health care reform law that is hers and President Barack
Obama's biggest legacy?

Although Sebelius' resignation removes a symbolic target for
opponents of the Affordable Care Act, and although Obama's 2012 re-
election is seen by its supporters as a final validation, the law
awaits yet another voter verdict in November's House and Senate
elections.

In the meantime, there will be a reprise of the debate over the
law's troubled implementation in the nomination hearings over
Obama's replacement nominee, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, currently
director of the Office of Management and Budget.

The new law was plagued by massive computer problems during the
initial enrollment period and delayed implementation of crucial
facets, including a mandate that small businesses with more than 50
employees cover their workers beginning this year.

Sebelius' resignation "doesn't change the fact that the
president's health care law is fundamentally flawed," said Sen. Roy
Blunt, R-Mo.

If Republicans get control of both houses of Congress after the
November elections, Blunt, who is fifth in line of Senate
leadership, said that "we might very well put a bill on (Obama's)
desk that would repeal Obamacare. But I would not expect that would
be a bill he would sign."

And then what?

There would be another partisan battle in Congress to repeal
parts of the law Republicans disagree with, and potentially a more
bipartisan effort to fix parts if and where a consensus develops
that the new law is not working.

Republicans say their offices are being flooded by calls from
constituents who say premiums or deductibles have essentially turned
their plans into costly catastrophic coverage, or that they can't
see their favorite doctors. Democrats are focused on the previously
uninsured who have signed up for the law, although there is no
consensus yet on how many fall into that category among the more
than 7 million enrollees the White House said came in before the
first-year deadline earlier this month. …